LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Among the Icebergs

Flokko despatching the Raven

Sir Humphrey Gilbert.

Bear shot dead while looking into a beef barrel

Barents' House

Hudson abandoned

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HEROES OF THE ARCTIC.

CHAPTER I.

The Heroes of the Arctic-Purchas, his Opinion-Britain's place in Arctic Discovery-Early History-The Phoenicians and Carthaginians-Did they Discover America?—The Voyages of two Junks across the Pacific.

HE Heroes of the Arctic! Conquerors of the elements, pioneers of science and commerce, who have dared to beard the Ice King in his own domain! How many grand names the title of this book recalls! nobler far than bravest knights of old-names which will live when wealth, and pomp, and power have had their day. How many instances shall we find of dauntless courage in the face of untold peril, rare piety, stern self-abnegation, perseverance when the hope was, indeed, forlorn, fortitude under every trial. Well might old Purchas exclaim, long before the pinnacle of Arctic glory had been reached: "How shall I admire your heroicke courage, ye marine

B

worthies, beyond all names of worthiness! that neyther dread so long eyther presence or absence of the sunne; nor those foggy mysts, tempestuous windes, cold blasts, snowes and hayle in the ayre; nor the unequall seas, which might amaze the hearer, and amate the beholder, where the Tritons and Neptune's selfe would quake with chilling feare, to behold such monstrous icie ilands, renting themselves with terrour of their own massines, and disdayning otherwise both the sea's sovereigntie, and the sunne's hottest violence, mustering themselves in those watery plaines where they hold a continual civill warre, and rushing one upon another, make windes and waves give backe."

It was fitting that Britain, so long "ruler of the main," should be the foremost in these adventurous expeditions. Nevertheless these pages will be found to contain as full acknowledgment and appreciation of the services to science so often displayed by other nations, as the space at command will permit. Three hundred years ago Sir Martin Frobisher, speaking of the north-west passage, said: "It is the only thing in the world that is left yet undone, whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate." "The North Polar region," says Mr. Markham, a most competent authority on all geographical questions, "that immense tract of hitherto unpenetrated land and sea which surrounds

The Actuating Motives.

3

one end of our earth, is the largest, as it is the most important field of discovery that remains for this generation to work out." Enthusiasm on these subjects can scarcely be said to have ever ceased in England, from the Middle Ages till our own time, when the most civilised countries have been, and are, competing for the glory of solving the Polar problem. Franklin and M'Clure virtually settled for ever the question of a north-west passage.

While scientific research is the actuating motive now-a-days for expeditions toward the polar region, it has not always been so. Various causes have impelled men in this work during past ages. The hopes of finding an open north-western or north-eastern route to the Orient, the formation of colonies, reported mineral discoveries, fisheries, and other commercial speculations have been the direct causes of hundreds of ventures. The fol

lowing pages record many such. Now, the motive is nobler. We have no need for an icy route to Cathaia; we have no expectation of commercial advantage from the exploration of the North Pole. We simply hope once and for ever to settle a scientific problem, or set of problems. If it is to be done, England will do it.

The ancient historians tell us little concerning the Northern Atlantic Ocean. The inevitable loss,

by fire or pillage, of manuscripts which now-a-days, copied or printed, would have an incalculable value to the historian and geographer, renders our knowledge of their early voyages very incomplete. The Phœnicians did, undoubtedly, discover the western coasts of Europe, besides proceeding more or less toward the north. Tin, one of the staple commodities sought by them in their ventures, was obtained from Cornwall; indeed, many suppose that all of that metal mentioned in ancient history was brought from Britain, and thus the intercourse between the Mediterranean and our country must have commenced at a very early period. Tin is specially mentioned in the Book of Numbers (chap. xxxi. 22), and in many of the earlier books of Holy Writ; also by Homer, Herodotus, and other ancient writers. It has also been inferred that the Phoenician ships had entered the Balticamber, a known article of their commerce, being principally found, even at the present day, on the shores of that sea. The Phoenicians and their Carthaginian descendants were the only rulers of the sea in those days, and they enjoyed a monopoly of traffic and commerce long before the Romans possessed a fleet at all. It is therefore certain that many voyages of importance were made of which all record is lost. Pliny asserts that Hippus, a Phoenician, constructed the first merchant ship,